


Overtime

by winterhats



Series: What's new? [3]
Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Babysitting, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Pregnancy, post-STR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 14:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18252050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterhats/pseuds/winterhats
Summary: Shintaro thinks that babysitting Haruka and Takane's kid is annoying.(He does it anyway).





	Overtime

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Sorry this is very bad asdfghjk. But then again, these series are the peak of my self indulgence fics hahaha.
> 
> Also, don't worry, it has a happy ending!

Shintaro was coming home from work when he got the message.

At first, he didn't think anything of it, but something about the way Haruka had written his text sounded off to him,

_"Please go pick up Fuyu from school."_

It wasn't weird of Haruka or Takane to ask this favour, but they always made sure to tell Shintaro details such as _why_  they're asking or for how long they needed him to babysit their kid.

It doesn't help the case that when he answers with an "okay", he doesn't get a text back. Usually, Haruka would thank him or send a silly sticker. This time he only left it on read.

Shintaro did conclude that it was a weird thing, but he guesses that perhaps, they were both overwhelmed with work or something like that. Who knows, really. All he knew was that he had a little niece-not-actually-niece to go pick up, so he turns on his heels in direction to Fuyuha's daycare.

He didn't fancy the idea, if he was absolutely honest. Honestly, he was kind of looking forward to going to his apartment with no need of social interaction. Plus, he had _actually_  done groceries yesterday, so he wasn't out of basic needs things.

And yeah, he adores Fuyuha and all but after an entire day of work where he had spoken to a hundred people here and there, babysitting a child sounded already taxing. Well, he thankfully knows how to manage her.

He'll just... play a movie or something and she'll be so focused on it she won't even talk. Hell, maybe she'll even fall asleep! That would be dope.

That reminds him again that he has no clue for how long he has to babysit her. He sends Haruka a text, waits for a moment, but he doesn't answer. Sighing, Shintaro figures he'll have to wait for a reply, and watches how there were already small children going home with their parents or siblings. Preschool was in sight.

He has to dodge a few kids as he makes his way in, the teacher who was saying goodbye to the children spotting him in the distance and smiling. And Shintaro, because he's Shintaro, grimaces in an attempt of smiling back.

"Hi there," she greets him, a brilliant smile making her way on her face. Shintaro looks away.

Fuyuha's kindergarten teacher is a young woman who he guesses, is around his age. She has short chestnut hair, cheerful eyes and a button nose decorated with freckles. Shintaro... feels awkward around her.

"Hey," he tried to play it cool though. She looked nice and professional, smiling the entire time. She crouches down, properly putting on a small boy's backpack before sending him to his parents, and comes back up.

She speaks before Shintaro could say something else, but it's not to him. She turns around, calling, "Fuyuha-chan! Your uncle is here!"

The teacher smiles at him again when she turns back to him, and Shintaro can only feel dejected. God, this sucked. He didn't even remember he'd have to see her.

There's nothing bad with this girl, don't get him wrong. He doesn't even know her, and all the contact he's had with her were moments like this one right here. Picking Fuyuha up, hi and bye. That's it, and that already wasn't a lot since Shintaro only came for her sometimes.

Fuyuha was taking her time, huh. Okay, just leave Shintaro sinking in his own awkwardness. It's only worse that the woman doesn't seem awkward at all. Well, of course she wasn't, unless he started staring too much.

She just reminded him of, uh _, someone,_ so Shintaro always made sure to avoid looking at her anyway.

He clears his throat, in an attempt of feeling less stupid, but it doesn't work. Thankfully, Fuyuha finally shows up.

"Uncle Shishin!" she chirped, hopping excitedly out of the gates, and immediately bumping against his leg to give him a hug. Loyal to routine, she asks the same thing she always asks when he's the one picking her up, "Where are mommy and daddy?"

"At work," he says in automatic, even though he has no idea if they really were.

She was still glued to his leg, so he gently pushes her away. Fuyuha does get away, and immediately shouts, "BUTTERFLY!"

And then she dashes after the bug.

"H – hey! Come here!" he nervously calls out, before realizing he should probably say bye to her teacher. Shintaro attempts a smile (failing miserably), and turns to her, "U – um– See you."

She just nodded, and shifted her attention back to the children. Shintaro feels like he breathes out a sigh he didn't realize he was holding, and rushes after Fuyuha.

"Fuyuha, jeez!" he called out, already out of breath. "Wait up!"

Fuyuha, on the other hand, was innocently jumping, apparently having forgotten about the butterfly already as she tried to avoid stepping on the lines of the sidewalk. She was slower already, so that was good. Shintaro slows down as well.

"Today I shared my juice box with Haruka-chan," she suddenly says, and Shintaro is slightly weirded out until he remembers she apparently has a classmate named Haruka. "She lost hers so we shared mine."

"That's nice," he tells her, offering a smile when she turned around to receive approval. She happily turns back when she sees it. "I mean– it's nice that you shared. It's not nice that she lost her juice box–"

"Yeah," Fuyuha agreed. "Oh! I also– I also made a drawing for mommy, because she felt bad yesterday."

"Did she now?"

That wasn't weird, considering Takane's pregnant and all, but he guessed it must've been bad if even Fuyuha noticed. He shakes the thought away when he sees Fuyuha trying to take her backpack off, "Hey, hey, whatcha doing?"

"I wanna show you the drawing I made for mommy."

"You can show me when we get to your house," he sighs, taking her backpack to carry it himself when he realizes she didn't want to put it back on. He checks the sky; those gray clouds were starting to cover it entirely. "Not right now, I wanna get you home as soon as possible. It's going to rain."

Fuyuha pouts, but she agrees with no further difficulty. She spends the rest of the walk home humming to herself, talking to every bird and dog she saw and getting distracted with ants.

When they arrived at the house, he was sure Haruka and Takane, or at least one of them, would already be home. But it seems like he's wrong, since no one answers when he announces, "We're here!"

"Mommy and daddy?" Fuyuha asks as well, because she seemed to be just as disappointed as him, only for different reasons; she probably wanted to see them, whereas he just... wanted to go home.

"Seems they're still working," he tells her, checking his phone. Haruka hadn't answered his text asking when they're getting home. He didn't even read it. He opens Takane's chat and sends the same question before he puts the phone back in his pocket. "Uuuh, well, what now?"

"I have to wash my hands," Fuyuha declares. "Daddy says to always wash my hands when I get home."

Shintaro nods. Alright. That was easy enough. He follows her close as she walks towards the bathroom, as he now knows she is not allowed to go by herself yet. She seems to be obsessed with playing with foam in the sink and always makes a mess of water and soap.

Fuyuha's way faster though, so she's already in the bathroom while he's halfway the living room to go there. He sees she turned the lights on, as she's very proud to be finally tall enough to do that (she has to get on her tiptoes and stretch a lot, though), but then she comes out of the room almost immediately.

Shintaro sends her an odd look, "What's wrong, shrimp?"

That's a nickname for her that Takane has lovingly given her, and it rubbed off on him.

Fuyuha looked off, looking back and forth inside the bathroom and him, until she settles for him. She sounds unsure, "There's paint in the bathroom."

"There's... um, what?"

"Red paint."

Shintaro's immediate first thought was that okay, it's probably _not_  paint, so he feels his heart drop to his stomach. He clears his throat, before taking a step forward to see for himself. He sees there's blood in the bathroom.

Well, it _could_  be paint, but... that would be very bizarre. He thinks back about how strange and empty the text Haruka sent him was, and how neither he or Takane had told him for how long he had to babysit yet.

 _Oh, man,_  he thinks. _Oh man, oh man, oh man._

There wasn't a lot of blood. There wasn't a puddle or anything. The white tiles on the floor had marks as if the blood had been dragged through a cloth, and then there was some more on the toilet seat. But again, it wasn't a lot.

The creepiest thing, in Shintaro's opinion, was how at the side of the toilet there were finger marks, as if a hand covered in blood had grabbed onto it. Which is probably what happened. It was a rather small hand print; maybe as small as... well, Takane's hands.

He gulps, and forces himself to go inside the bathroom to actually see inside the toilet. More blood.

Both Haruka and Takane are absent with no details whatsoever. Takane feeling bad. Pregnant Takane feeling bad. Blood. Blood in the bathroom.

He winces, and feels his entire body tremble. Shit, shit, shit.

Oh, god. Oh, fuck.

Fuyuha tugs at his jersey, "Uncle Shishin?"

"Um, let's..." he clears his throat again after he hears how high his voice sounded. "Let's use the bathroom upstairs, yeah?"

She nods, but she still looks worried about the bathroom, so he desperately tries to look for something to cheer her up,

"You know how your dad likes painting?" Shintaro asks her, and she quickly nods again. "Well, you know he's a clutz, so maybe his clothes were super dirty and his hands too and he didn't notice when he came to the bathroom."

"Oh," he's a genius, because Fuyuha immediately smiles, believing every word he said (then again, she's four years old). "Okay! Mommy's gonna be naggy with him then."

"Yeah!" he nervously laughs back, and turns off the lights and closes the door when Fuyuha happily hops away to go climb the stairs. He sighs in relief, but quickly takes his phone, following the little girl close behind.

Fuyuha started singing a Christmas carol despite they weren't anywhere near Christmas, while Shintaro listens to the phone line for longer than he'd like until Haruka actually picks up.

"Hello?"

"Thank _god,_ " he felt his heart slightly calmer now that he heard the other man's voice, thinking he'd have to be left in the dark until they came back, but the concern was still insistently making his stomach feel like shit. "Dude– what–"

"Did you go pick up Fuyu?" Haruka immediately asks, as if that was the most urgent thing right now, which to him it probably was.

" _Yes,_ " he reluctantly answers. He absently sees Fuyuha stand on her foot stool to wash her hands once they're in the bigger bathroom upstairs. "We're at your place now."

"Oh, good," he tells him, but he sounds quite absent. "Takane and I will be back, uh, later."

"Don't get all mysterious, please," Shintaro immediately says, in a low voice so Fuyuha doesn't worry. "I've seen the bathroom. What the fuck is going on."

There's silence at the other end of the line, and Shintaro can faintly hear Takane's voice. He doesn't understand what she's saying, but she sounds stressed. Haruka speaks with a rather stressed voice as well, "We're at the hospital right now."

Shintaro, not surprised, still winces. He breathes out a sigh before asking, "Is... is Takane okay?"

There's silence again and oh, god. Silence is not what you want to hear after a question like this.

"Um," with just that sound Haruka makes, Shintaro notices he's probably holding back tears. His voice sounded high and weak. " _She's_  okay, uhhh... but we still don't know if..."

He doesn't finish his sentence, so Shintaro guesses he can figure out the rest by himself. Fuyuha seemed to be done, so he rushes to go help her dry her hands once he saw her reaching for the soap again.

"Well, um," Shintaro nervously continues. "Tell me when you know."

"Yes, I will," Haruka says. "But for now, please stay with Fuyu. We'll... probably take a while. Order in some food– there's money in Takane and I's bedroom, in the drawer of my bedside table. Also–"

As Haruka talked about Fuyuha's bath time, bedtime and things of the sort, Shintaro starts to panic.

Thing is, he _does_  babysit Fuyuha a lot, but it's only for a short while. Two hours tops, mostly in the afternoon while she's napping, so that wasn't a lot in itself.

When she was a baby and Takane's maternity leave ended, Haruka decided to quit his job, so Shintaro wasn't her babysitter then either. Of course, he's had the job a few times, but just to be clear he's never had to change her diaper, so that's telling on how much time he spent babysitting (not a lot).

Haruka now worked from home painting and drawing, and only sometimes he's called to substitute an absent art teacher at the school he used to work at before Fuyuha was born, yadda yadda, but most of the time he was home with her. So Shintaro is only needed when it gives the timing Takane's working at the same time Haruka's called for whatever reason, which didn't mean for a lot of hours since one or the other eventually got home and he was free to go.

"Got it?" Haruka suddenly says, and Shintaro feels his head spinning. Fuyuha was currently looking up at him in curiosity,

"Are you speaking with mommy and daddy?"

"Uhh, yeah," he answers, meant for Haruka, but in Fuyuha's ears that sounded like a yes to her question. She immediately starts jumping up and down,

"Let me talk to them, let me talk to them!" she pleaded, trying to grab on his arm to bring the phone to her. "I wanna say hi! Are they coming back now?"

"H – hey!" Shintaro tries to get her off of him, but damn, she has a lot of energy and he's just a lazy old guy. "Um– Senpai, Fuyuha wants to speak to you."

Silence again. He hears him speaking to someone else now, presumably Takane, before he goes, "Okay, pass her to me."

Shintaro is _not_  giving Fuyuha his phone. She's as clumsy as her dumb dad and even more considering she's a toddler, so he simply puts the phone on speaker. Fuyuha, already used to that, immediately leans closer to the phone when he ducks down to her height,

"HELLO!" she screams, because for some reason she still thought she needed to yell through the phone or else the other person won't hear.

"Don't shout, shrimp," Shintaro, however, is surprised when the voice that comes from the phone is Takane's.

When she hears her, Fuyuha's face brightens up even more, and grabs on the phone. Shintaro still doesn't let go of it though. "Hi, mommy!"

"Hi, tiny," Takane sounded rather chirpy, oddly, but she was probably putting in the effort for Fuyuha. "What did you do today?"

"Well, Haruka-chan lost her juice box, so we shared mine."

"Oh, that's too bad," Takane says. "But it's good you shared yours. That's real nice!"

"Yeah!" Fuyuha smiled, happy with the compliment. "Are you coming home soon?"

There's a pause, but not long enough to let Fuyuha worry, "Yes, but you'll have to stay with uncle Shintaro for a bit, alright?"

This did seem to visibly upset Fuyuha. She pouts, and looks to her feet; her voice became tiny. "A bit already passed, though."

Ouch. Cold. He knows that she just missed her parents, but still, ouch.

"I know, love," Shintaro has really never heard Takane call Fuyuha anything other than a funny nickname, so that takes him off guard. Still, her voice sounded super soft, so it was possible Takane thought she wasn't on speaker. "But daddy and I are busy. Uncle Shintaro is fun, and he'll order yummy food for you!"

"I like mommy and daddy's food better."

Fuyuha decided to be difficult, apparently. Shintaro couldn't see her face, since she was dejectedly looking away, but her voice already told him she would cry. Oh, god, please don't.

Takane hums, "Well, I didn't wanna tell you, but this is actually a mission daddy and I are trusting you with."

That, however, did catch her attention. Fuyuha raises her eyebrow at the phone, still kind of reluctantly though, "Huuh?"

"Yes, yes. You know? Uncle Shintaro is kind of silly and a scaredy cat," she says, and Shintaro immediately growls. Oh, so _this_  is the direction she's taking. "See how it started to rain?"

Fuyuha looks up at the closed window, and surely, it had already started raining like her mother said, "Yes..."

"Well, uncle Shintaro is very scared of that... and since you're such a brave and smart girl..." Takane went on, and Shintaro just rolls his eyes again. His arm was getting tired from holding the phone for Fuyuha, his legs too, and he just hated everything. "I entrust you with the task of taking care of him until we come home. Can you do that for mommy, Fuyuha?"

The child was already nodding halfway through Takane's sentence, her face now filled with excitement, "Yes! I'll do my best!"

"I know you will!" Takane confidently chirps back. "We'll see each other later, alright?"

"Alright!" Fuyuha, thankfully cheered up, nodded again, and Shintaro wondered if she knew that Takane couldn't actually see her. "Bye, mommy!"

"Wa – wait, Fuyuha," Takane suddenly says, her voice slightly more worried and breaking the happy tone she was putting up. Shintaro stops his arm mid air, already having been ready to hang up, and tiredly sighs to get the phone back to Fuyuha, "I love you."

"I love you too," Fuyuha says in a heartbeat. "See you later, mommy!"

"Yes, see you."

Shintaro finally hangs up, all the annoyment he felt towards Takane for telling that whole thing suddenly going away. He sighs, and forces a smile for Fuyuha, "See? They're coming back later. Don't worry, Fuyuha."

"No, _you_  don't worry, uncle Shishin!" Fuyuha grinned, and determinedly pointed a finger inside the bathroom. "Now, go wash your hands!"

Shintaro blinks at her, but she didn't seem to be backing down. He ends up doing as told.

* * *

 

By the time the food was here, Fuyuha was already bathed and in her pajamas. Shintaro thinks he might've done things in the wrong order already, since she still needed to have dinner, _but whatever._

He quickly tells the poor delivery guy at the door to wait a second as he went grab the money, because dumbass uncle Shintaro didn't have it ready before hand. That poor man had no choice but to wait, even with the storm.

Fuyuha, sitting on the couch and watching a cartoon, looks at him oddly, "Where are you going, uncle Shishin?"

"I'm gonna go grab something upstairs."

"Can I go?"

"No, I'll be quick."

He doesn't see how she reacts, and he dashes up the stairs. After all, the delivery guy was still waiting.

By the moment he's inside Takane and Haruka's bedroom, he's hit with their smell mixed in. He instantly realizes he never really came to this room at all; in fact, he'd only ever stepped in at the door to ask them something or stuff like that. He was never properly inside of it, or at least not that he remembers.

That is to say, he has no idea which side is Haruka's, so he has no idea which one is his bedside table.

_Ughhhh..._

The closest is the right side, so that's where he goes. He opens the drawer of that bedside table and finds approximately a hundred papers. Jesus.

He moves them around for a bit until he notices there's no money there. In fact, he sees old sticky notes with doodles that said "do your best today!" and "have a great day!" accompanied with lots of hearts, so first of all: ew. Second of all, he thinks it's safe to say those were from Haruka to Takane and she had kept them, so this was probably Takane's side of the bed. He sighs, and rushes to the other side.

Shintaro sees the money as soon as he opens the other drawer, along with a box of condoms, which are the second big ew. He takes some money.

He turns around to go back, and immediately screams, "FUCK! FUYUHA!"

"Uncle Shishin, that's a bad word," Fuyuha covers her mouth. "I'm telling on you."

How else is he supposed to react when she appears behind him without making a noise, like a fucking demon child? So completely ignoring her, he puts a hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat starting to calm down, "Jesus _christ,_ don't scare me like that! I told you to stay downstairs!"

However, Fuyuha seemed to have a very valid reason as to why she didn't obey: she shrugs. "Sorry..."

The tiny apology though, is enough to calm Shintaro down. He straightens up, and sighs, "Okay, okay... let's go have dinner, alright?"

Fuyuha nods, and takes his hand to go downstairs. She didn't seem particularly upbeat like usual, so perhaps... she was missing her parents again, and didn't want to be left alone downstairs. He is such a charmer, huh.

Anyhow, she stays by his side as he pays for the food,

"You have a real cute kid! Hey there!" the delivery guy says, after gleefully accepting the extra tip. Shintaro was about to answer, but Fuyuha's faster,

"Ehh? He's not my daddy," she tells him. "My daddy is taller and is with my mommy now and they're busy. This is my uncle and I'm taking care of him because he's scared of the rain."

Shintaro only blushes when the delivery man laughs, and quickly says goodbye.

He pauses for a moment after he closes the door, before staring down at Fuyuha and saying, "That's why you followed me upstairs?"

Fuyuha nodded, "I don't want my uncle Shishin to be scared."

As Shintaro pushed back tears of endearment, he felt sort of relieved. Good, she was doing fine. He was starting to think she really missed Haruka and Takane and this would all end in tears, so he's glad to be wrong.  
He gestured her with his head to go back to the living room. There was also the dining table, and since Fuyuha made her way straight to it, he guessed they wouldn't be eating in the smaller kitchen table. She probably wanted to continue watching her show.

Fuyuha still "helps" him set up the table (all she did was bring two chopsticks) and lovingly continued to stare at the tv. Shintaro couldn't care less about the cartoon she was watching, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

Eventually, since the silence was making him a little awkward, Shintaro clears his throat, "Uh, what's this show about?"

"Oh, well, they're a magic," Fuyuha says, immediately starting to eat once the food was in her plate. Still, Shintaro wasn't confident she'd eat much. Something she hasn't taken after Haruka is his stomach, for sure. She only ever nibbles a bit on her dinner and that was it; however, she's a major sweet tooth. She will eat anything if it has sugar in it. "And they protect the city! And, and the girls help that boy use his powers! And he has a pink lion."

He doesn't know how the pink lion relates to the other stuff, so he only hums in response. At least he understood it was a magical girls show or something. He wasn't even facing the tv, so he wasn't putting any more effort in getting into the cartoon. Although, as Fuyuha ate, she added,

"I always watch it with daddy," she stared at the tv with focused eyes, her expression not showing anything other than attention. "He really likes the pink lion."

Shintaro sighs, absently listening to an ukelele song start in the show. Soon, Fuyuha says she's not hungry anymore.

(...)

"Alriiight... time for bed."

Thankfully, Fuyuha didn't seem to be against bedtime. He already knows she's super easy to put to sleep, but according to Haruka and Takane, getting her to actually lay down was a nightmare. Nonetheless, tonight she simply high fives a silly character painted in the wall of the room (courtesy of Haruka), and quickly gets in bed.

Another weird thing about Fuyuha right now, was that she didn't seem to be in a good mood. That didn't mean she was grumpy or something, she just wasn't as smiley and chirpy as she usually is. She was just... very neutral, and Fuyuha is never neutral on anything.

Shintaro concluded she was just sleepy; after all, she _was_  like half an hour past the bedtime Haruka told him (he and Takane don't need to know that detail, though) (they _also_  didn't need to know he forgot to tell her to brush her teeth and Fuyuha herself reminded him she needed to do that before bed).

She holds her pig plushie close, which was almost as big as her, and gets under the covers. Shintaro was about to tell her good night and turn off the lights when she says, "I want the blue side tonight."

"...Uhhh, what?" he asks her, kind of weirded out by the sudden statement. Fuyuha gestures to her bedspread. It was pink, but in the other side it was baby blue. Shintaro has to ask again, because he's not sure he's getting it right, "You... want me to turn the bedspread so it's on the blue side?"

"Yes," she confirms, and oh, god. What a brat. Why did that matter?! Where did she even get that idea? "Daddy always asks me which side I want."

_You've got to be kidding me._

Still, he didn't really wanna discuss this, so albeit he was reluctant, he turns the damn bedspread over. Seriously, Haruka. Who does that? Was his wish to spoil his daughter _that_  big? Jesus, he can almost imagine him being like _"see, Fuyu? It can be used either way because there's two different colours, I am such a dumbass, hee hee!"_

"Okay, done," Shintaro said, already exhausted. "Now, good night."

"Ehh?" Fuyuha nervously sat up on her bed. "Wh – what about my bedtime story?"

Shintaro takes in a deep breath, "Of _course_  your parents read you a bedtime story every night."

Not sensing the sarcasm, Fuyuha only nods like that was obvious. And honestly, it kind of was.

The girl points to her bedside table, which wasn't much of a table but a small book shelf. Shintaro ducks to properly see the books, "Anything in mind?"

Fuyuha shrugs. Of course she does.

Shintaro starts reading the options out loud, "Um– there's The Zoo, A Hungry Caterpillar, Sleeping Beauty–"

"Daddy says mommy's the sleeping beauty."

He swallows back saying "yeah, whatever" because this is a child, but he has definitely heard Haruka call Takane that; almost constantly, actually. It was probably an usual pet name of his. Then again, Shintaro doesn't care, so he just absently says, "Does he now?"

"Yup!" Fuyuha answers, suddenly a little more upbeat. "Mommy says he's silly, though."

And then she goes quiet again. Shintaro clears his throat, "Um, well there's also the book your dad illustrated."

"Illu-wha?"

"Eh, remember when your dad made the drawings for a book someone wrote?"

"Oh, yeah!" she happily nods. "Mommy loves that one."

He doesn't get how Takane loves a book that had an age rating of 4+, but alright. (Shintaro does recall Takane was immensely proud of Haruka when he was hired to illustrate that book, but eh, details).

Anyway, Fuyuha didn't seem too interested in this one, so he moves on. Before he could talk about the next one though, she speaks up,

"Can you read me Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Oh," he's kind of taken back, but he immediately shuffles through the books until he finds that one. Huh. Weird she'd go for such a classic choice.... although, he doubts four year old Fuyuha even knows this fairy tale has been a thing for centuries. "Alright then."

He sat down on her bed, excited by how short this book seemed to be compared to the others. He guessed it was a poorly adaptated version. Chuckling to himself, Shintaro started with the classical "once upon a time."

Fuyuha seemed to be doing well so far, listening quietly and calmly. At least until Shintaro read the dialogues. As soon as he did, Fuyuha spoke up with a critic, "That's wrong, uncle Shishin."

"I mean," Shintaro said, nodding to the book, "It _is_  pretty irresponsible to send a kid through the forest by herself, right? How old do you think Little Red Riding Hood is? Like six?"

Clearly not listening to his reasoning, Fuyuha puffs her cheeks up, "No, uncle Shishin, you aren't doing the voices."

Shintaro pauses. He breathes in.

"Of _course_  your dad also does the voices..."

"Eh?" Fuyuha tilts her head to the side. "Mommy always reads me the bedtime stories, though."

He can't help laughing at that. He knew Takane was a dork, just not _that_  much of a dork. Still, his laughter dies down once he realizes he has to actually do the stupid voices. "Uhh, Fuyuha, do I really need to do that? Why can't it just... be a thing only your mom does?"

Fuyuha pouts, clearly disappointed. She snuggles closer to her pig.

Shintaro was about to simply keep reading when he sees she's crying.

_Wait, what!?_

"Wh– hey! Fu – Fuyuha, what's wrong!?" he asks, immediately jumping closer to her, confused with the suddenness of this. "Ahhh, d – does it really upset you that much!? I'll – I'll do the voices, just don't cry–"

But Fuyuha shakes her head, and he sees how she rubs one of her eyes, probably because of how sleepy she was. Shintaro starts sweating cold,

"Th – then what's wrong? Does something hurt?"

And with a second shake of head, the cracking sound of a thunderclap rang through the room, making the window tremble, as well as Fuyuha.

Shintaro looks at the window, then back at her. "Are you... are you scared of the storm?"

That's when Fuyuha actually lets out a sob, and immediately starts _wailing_  right after, crying her eyes out against her pig plushie.

Sure, she's a crybaby, but she usually makes sure to be very clear on what she's crying about, so consequently that made it easier to calm her down. Right now, he had absolutely no clue of what to do.

Yeah, he guesses she got spooked with the thunder, but there was so much he could do about that. He couldn't think of anything to make her feel better about the rain, so he just miserably watches her sob. It was an understatement his heart was absolutely broken and he was hating himself more than ever for doing nothing about this.

"I– I–" she hiccuped and trembled in an attempt to speak, revealing her face from the plushie and letting Shintaro see the mess she was. Her entire face was red, snot and tears making their way down her face. Shintaro can only put a hand on her shoulder, finally bringing himself to speak,

"Fu – Fuyuha, calm down, it's okay. It's just rain!" he told her, but she only continued doing that hiccup thing. "Re – remember what your mom said about how brave you are and–"

Fuyuha cries even more, and Shintaro winces. Great job, dumbass. At this point he might start bawling too, but when Fuyuha's weeps became a word, he suddenly feels like the biggest moron in the entire world.

"Mommy!"

It took him longer than necessary to realize this, given how fucking simple it was; she missed her parents, because _of course she fucking did._

She's a child, she hasn't seen them since this morning, and there was a loud storm outside. That goes without mentioning that she has been bringing them up for the last hour at every little thing Shintaro said.

As Fuyuha continued to cry, Shintaro tries to think of something to say. But as the absolute moron he is, he can't think of anything, "Um– Fuyuha, it's okay, she'll be back soon– y – your dad too, and it's gonna be fine–"

She wasn't loudly screaming or something though, he wouldn't know how to deal with that, but she still was an complete mess.

"I – I – want them now..." she whined, the words trembling in her throat. God, she didn't even look like the same child who was excitedly talking about how she shared her juice box with a classmate. Was it possible to feel heartbreak multiple times in the same minute? Because that's what was happening to Shintaro. "I d – don't want uncle Sh – Shishin anymore! I – I want mommy a – and daddy!"

...Confirmed. It _is_  possible.

Shintaro can only hug her, but that doesn't make her stop crying.

* * *

 

Admittedly, it wasn't long until she was asleep, because she _was_  very tired, but it felt long enough after Fuyuha had no option but cry herself to sleep.

At least, Shintaro felt utterly drained when he finally got out of the toddler's bedroom. He was making his way downstairs with coffee in mind, even though he's not the biggest coffee fan. There just wasn't soda in here, and he supposes that was the next best thing.

However, when he made it downstairs, he's greeted by people little Fuyuha would've loved to see.

Haruka and Takane were sitting in the couch, apparently unaware of his presence. Shintaro already felt his stomach squishing itself, because the sight of Takane holding her head as Haruka wrapped his arm around her in comfort, wasn't very positive.

Shintaro goes down the last two steps of the stairs, finally receiving their attention, "H – hey."

Both seem startled for a second, but quickly settle down again. They spoke at the same time, "Yeah, hey."

He makes his way to the armchair, keeping his worried eyes on them. "So."

Takane's the first to look at him. Shintaro sits down, and she repeats, "So."

"Takane," Haruka cuts in, rubbing his hands on Takane's arms as if he wanted to keep her warm. He shoots Shintaro a smile, albeit a tired one. "Everything's alright, Shintaro-kun."

"Wh– what? Like, what is?" Shintaro confusedly asks. "Like, is she fine, or is the baby fine–"

"Everyone involved is fine," Takane interrupts him, laying back on the couch. She puts a hand on her swollen stomach, since in this position her oversized clothes showed it, and the softness of the gesture didn't reflect on her voice or words at all, "This little dickhead just gave us a scare, that's all."

Shintaro felt himself start breathing properly again. "Thank fuck."

He's not sure how Haruka and Takane would've dealed with a second miscarriage, really. First of all, they did _not_  deserve that, and second of all, he kind of made them talk the second child thing, so he would've felt a little guilty.

(Except, this is not about him and he knows that, he just needs to find a way to feel included).

"I started bleeding," Takane explained, although that didn't explain much. "And when we got to the hospital they couldn't find the baby's heartbeat, so all in all it was a super fun evening. Wouldn't you say so, honey?"

Haruka winces, "No. It was awful."

Takane immediately drops the sarcasm and nods, looking at Shintaro, "Yeah, it was awful."

"S – so your baby's fine?"

"Yeah," Takane nods, and makes an uncomfortable face, now speaking directly to her belly. "And now the little shit won't stop fucking kicking me so apparently this baby's just an asshole."

"D – don't say that, Takane..." Haruka told her, but there still was a smile on his face. He hesitantly placed his hand on her tummy as well, probably to feel the claimed kicks, and quickly smiled at her. Takane smiled back despite her swears.

Shintaro does not want to feel those kicks because they're gross as hell. Back when Takane was pregnant with Fuyuha, he agreed to feel a kick and ew, fucking ew. It's like an alien or something.

"God, this was such a bad day," Takane whined, leaning her head back. Haruka just kissed her cheek, laying his head on the crook of her neck and keeping his hand on her stomach,

"Well, it's over now," he told her. "And everything turned out fine. We get to rest now."

"I'm, like, so not going to work tomorrow."

"That's okay. I support that decision," Haruka says. "You can stay home and I'll pamper and spoil you!"

Grumbling, Takane snuggled closer to Haruka, and you guessed it, Shintaro quickly starts feeling like the third wheel again. But there's nothing new about that. He sighs loudly, as if to remind them he's still here, but they don't even flinch. Are they falling asleep? Hey!

"Um, so Fuyuha..."

Both shoot their eyes open, "Fuyuha?"

Ha. Got them.

"Ah, how was she?" Haruka questioned, not erasing the sleepiness from his face nor making any effort to get away from his wife. "Did she behave?"

"Well," Shintaro moved his head, as if he was indecisive. "She was okay until she wasn't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Takane raises an eyebrow, apparently ready for the kill, like she always is when Shintaro was left alone with Fuyuha. "Isn't she asleep now?"

"Oh, she is," he nodded. "But she put me through hell. She cried for like, an entire half an hour until she tired herself out and fell asleep."

Both of them blink in surprise. They steal a glance of each other like they always do, and turn back to him. Haruka's the one to speak, "That's... odd."

"That's never happened to us?" Takane goes. "What did you do? I will murder you."

"Okay, first of all, you do not look intimidating with that pregnant tummy and that giant man cuddling you," he tells her, and Takane immediately blushes like she was a highschooler. She doesn't get Haruka off her though, and only looks away. "Secondly, she was upset because she missed you guys, and there's so much I can do about that."

"She was crying because she missed us?" Haruka, despite he looked heartbroken, quickly gets an amused smile tugging at his lips. He kisses Takane's head before going, "What a coincidence! Earlier, Takane was so upset she was also crying because of that–"

"HEY!" Takane nervously tries to interject, but Haruka just laughed,

"But it's true! You were so upset after speaking to Fuyuha on the phone."

"I was just on edge because we couldn't find the fucking baby's heartbeat! Jeez!" she defended herself, even though there wasn't much to defend herself from. "Come say something when you're the one carrying a baby!"

"Aww, why does it embarrass you? It's not like I'm making fun of you!" Haruka cooed, already planting kisses on her cheek. "You just missed our daughter and she missed you, that's all!"

"Yeah, in a pretty fucking horrible situation."

"Well, but everything's fine now!" he continued kissing her, and as annoyed as Takane sounded and looked, she let him. "They told us it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine."

As they sank back in the couch in their cuddles and kisses, Shintaro patiently waited for them to be done. Until they just wouldn't, and he sees Takane actually wraps her arms around Haruka's neck, and the kissing noises were starting to make him uncomfortable, "Uh. Guys."

Haruka immediately braces himself up from her, while Takane looks at him with a blank stare, deadpanning, "Ah, you're still here?"

"Of course I am! Seriously, what's with you!"

"Dunno, thought all the kissing was a pretty straightforward way to tell you you could go now."

"You are a mean woman."

"Takane, don't be mean to him," Haruka nagged, but there was no sign of actual annoyment in his face. He just looked at his wife with pure fondness, and Shintaro just wanted to puke right here and now. "You know you can stay over, Shintaro-kun, especially with this awful weather."

Yeah, that was one of his fears too. There's no way he could go home now, unless he asked Haruka and Takane to drive him, but he was decent enough to not even consider that as a possibility after the day they went through. The only word he could find to describe his feelings right now was "ugh."

At least he had his own room here. Or, well, the guest room he's taken over, actually.

"Also, that reminds me," Takane starts, apparently reading his mind. "We're gonna, like... eventually uhh, kick you out of your room."

Shintaro blinks at them, "Um. Why."

"Don't say it like that!" Haruka nervously tells her, trying to clarify it. "We're just– gonna _move_  the guest room. You can still stay over but... we're gonna use the current guest room –or, well, your room as we know it– for the baby's room."

Oh. Well. That made sense.

And it left Shintaro no room to discuss. (Get it? _No room?_ )

He sighs in defeat, because even if that wasn't the reason they'd be doing that, it's still _their_  house and they can do whatever the hell they want with the rooms, "Well... where are you moving it, though?"

"The study should be okay?" Haruka says, and Shintaro raises an eyebrow at him. "We can just put a desk in Takane and I's room and we'll share it."

The study was a place both Haruka and Takane used, but most notably Haruka, as all of his art supplies and works are in there. Shintaro almost wants to laugh, and in fact, he can't help a chuckle,"You guys wanna give up your work space so I can have a place to crash the _few_  times I actually stay over?"

His friends glance at each other, probably noticing how ridiculous it sounded now that they heard it out loud, but only moved their heads in a "well, yeah" sort of answer. Shintaro shakes his head, amused,

"That's real nice of you, but you know I barely ever stay here anymore," he says, and before they could object (because he saw them about to), he adds, "I _know_  I've practically lived here in the past but– I'm doing fine. A few years ago I was desperately looking for excuses to come here and eat all of your food and now, I was just wishing to go to my place the entire night. Really, I'm okay."

"Yeah, but–" both Haruka and Takane start, but Shintaro just cuts them off with a groan,

" _God,_ guuuys," he rubs his hands on his eyes. "I am not your kid. That– that _thing_  inside Takane is. I am not the owner of the house, you dorks are. You do the math."

With this, they finally go quiet. They still smile, though.

Even if he was making it to be a little thing, it was actually kind of a big deal. Shintaro has been crashing in Haruka and Takane's house ever since they moved in together, which was like... ten years ago or something. What? Are they really that old? Is he really that old? Are they all dying? Oh, god.

Anyhow, since that's been a thing, and he's always been depressed and they've always been worried, he has always had his small place in their home, wherever that may be at the moment. Their first aparment was the smallest one they've had, and the one bedroom there was was obviously theirs, so the couch had became Shintaro's possession during that time.

(They threw it away when they moved from that place. Shintaro tries not to take it personally, but it still hurt when he remembered Takane complaining about how much it fucking stank and Haruka nodded and made faces of discomfort at it).

 _But,_  Haruka and Takane are having two kids. They have a nice house, a nice daughter and a nice relationship, and they deserved to live their life without worrying about grown ass Shintaro.

"If anything, we can clean up the attic so you can grow old up there."

Shintaro rolls his eyes at Takane's comment, which was obviously followed by Haruka's laugh.

Before he can shoot back a snarky reply though, an almost ghost-like voice creeps from behind him, "Mommy?"

He jumps on the armchair, but Haruka and Takane weren't jumpscared. He has no idea _how_ they weren't. Fuyuha just keeps quietly creeping up to him, seriously.

Wait, Fuyuha?

Surely, when he turns around, the little girl is standing in the last step of the staircase, tiredly rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Haruka and Takane's faces soften even more, both opening their arms, and Fuyuha makes her way to them with no hesitation.

Thing is, since one of Haruka's arms was wrapped around Takane, when Fuyuha hugged her mom, he just wrapped both of them in another layer of embrace. They're silent as the three of them hugged, as they're all equally as sleepy.

Shintaro sees the way Takane kisses her head before breaking apart, "Did you wake up just now?"

Fuyuha nods. Shintaro couldn't see her face like this, but just by the way she sounded, he could imagine her pouting, "I'm sorry, mommy. The storm scared me too."

"Oh, that's alright," Takane quickly hugs her again, "You know, sometimes they scare me too."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she leaned away, cupping her daughter's cheek fondly. Takane then looks at her face more carefully though, and Shintaro can _swear_  he saw her shoot a quick glare in his direction. "You have uh, dry snot on your face."

As soon as Fuyuha tries to wipe her nose with her sleeve, Takane stops her, even though the cloth of her pajamas weren't gonna clean something like that,

"No, wait, we gotta clean it with water–"

Haruka gets up before Takane could, taking Fuyuha's hand, "That's fine, I'm taking her."

Fuyuha, however, dodged Haruka's hand to start making grabby hands up at him. Without question or complaint, Haruka picked her up.

As they made their way to the kitchen, Shintaro sees that Fuyuha had wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder, very much like she was ready to nap, as Haruka said, "Ah~ Fuyu is so warm~"

Since Fuyuha's name meant "winter", that was sort of ironic...

And then he's left alone with Takane. She shoots him a small smile, rarely enough, before laying back against the cushions with a big sigh. It wasn't an exhausted sigh though. It wasn't that sound of frustration she made back in highschool when they'd meet up for a study session for her and the other girl in their quartet.

This was sort of a happy sigh, and it succeeds in cracking a smile in Shintaro's face too.

"There's the ultrasound pictures, if you're interested," Takane gestures with her head to the coffee table, and surely, there was a brown paper envelope.

"God, those are awful," Shintaro says, and even so, still takes the envelope. "They're like, so ominous."

"I know, right?" Takane giggles. "I drew an evil face in one of Fuyuha's back then and I think that was the one time Haruka got genuinely mad at me."

"I really can't imagine it."

"He was more upset than angry, if I'm being honest. And he forgave me after I went to take a new one for him," she went on. "When I see those though, there's only one word in my mind: slimy."

" _Ew._ "

"Right?! Now imagine having inside your stomach the smily thing you see in the picture."

"The baby's not in your stomach, but whatever," Shintaro tells her, and as Takane complained that she already knew that and she was just making a point, he blinks at what he takes out of the envelope. It _was_  an ultrasound picture, yes, but with a sticky note on top of it, saying "it's a boy!!!". He looks at her, "Ah, you're having a boy?"

She raises an eyebrow when she looks back at him. She snorted, "Pfff, I hope not! I heard it's a nightmare to change their diapers. Why?"

Takane absently continued to ramble about "ughh, diapers" and how she hasn't changed one in like two years and did not look forward to doing it again, while Shintaro simply turns the picture with the note around. It takes her a second. She opens her mouth as if to say something, any trace of her playful mood quickly going away, but Haruka is back with Fuyuha before she could say anything.

"All done! Face is clean and cute, but the cute part was already there from before," he said, bouncing his weight from one foot to the other to rock Fuyuha back and forth and make her laugh. Haruka, however, reads the weird mood in the living room, and sends a strange look towards whatever Takane was looking at. He makes the same face.

Then it was apparent to Shintaro they didn't know the gender. Even though spoiling this for them wasn't technically his fault, his first thought is _good job, you absolute jackass._

"What's going on? What's that?" Fuyuha asks, seeing how the center of attention seemed to be a stupid sticky note, and Shintaro panics. As far as he know, she hasn't been told about her mom's pregnancy yet, so oh god, she'll read this and he won't have only messed it up with Haruka and Takane but he'll also make Fuyuha find out and– "I can't read."

Oh. Right.

As Takane took in a deep breath, Haruka finally sits back down, holding Fuyuha close. He leans to his wife, talking in a whisper (still loud enough to let everyone hear), "I thought we told the doctor we didn't wanna know?"

"I thought so too, but as I said many times before, she's..." Takane seemed to be about to swear, but her eyes nervously shift to Fuyuha before she says, "A dummy."

Fuyuha covered her mouth and gasped like her mom had just said a very bold thing. Takane didn't seem to be very fond of their doctor.

...Actually, now that Shintaro thinks about it, Haruka and Takane told him that the first time, they learned about Fuyuha's gender by accident as well. They didn't want to know it to avoid getting attached (like that did the trick), but their doctor had messed up and referred to the baby as a "she." Damn, he wonders if it's the same doctor.

Shintaro coughs awkwardly, and turns the note back to himself. He puts it up to see the ultrasound picture, in an attempt of lightening the mood, "A – and there it is, the slimy picture! Hahaha..."

He nervously glances at them, but they're just looking at each other. Fuyuha, curious about literally everything, looked in between her parents for any clue of... well, anything. Haruka and Takane though, just smiled at each other.

Already bored, Fuyuha sighed, "What is iiit?"

"It's nothing, Fuyu," Haruka chuckled, after pressing a kiss on Takane's hand. He continued to squeeze it, using his free one to ruffle Fuyuha's hair. "Let's go, you should be asleep by now–"

"You know how– You know how Shion-chan used to be in auntie Mary's tummy?" Takane suddenly blurts out, and any willingess Fuyuha had to go upstairs with Haruka is gone there. It wasn't like Haruka showed any signs of wanting to stop his wife, though; mostly just surprise.

Fuyuha nods, "Yeah. Shion-chan's a baby."

She has learned to call her a baby since everyone did it, but that didn't stop her from actively trying to play with Shion. She wanted to be her friend at all costs, even if poor baby Shion could only do as much as roll over (and whenever she did, Seto and Mary rejoiced and spammed the group chat with pictures and videos).

"W – _well,_ " Takane nervously carried on, avoiding eye contact with Fuyuha. "Well, y – you see, um... now, uh, uuum..."

"Takane," Haruka suddenly said, looking at her with a fond but careful smile. He spoke lowly, "You don't have to tell her now if you don't want to."

"There's also a baby inside mommy's tummy now."

His words seemed to be the last push to make Takane spit it out. After all, if you want to make Takane do something, all you have to do is tell her she can't.

(Haruka 100% didn't say that, but _oh,_ Takane).

Shintaro winced, already closing his eyes tightly, since he was absolutely sure Fuyuha would scream everyone's ears off. But when he doesn't hear anything, he opens them to see the girl calmly looking back at Takane.

"In here?" Fuyuha pointed at Takane's stomach. Her mother nodded, and she looked down at it. "Oh. Is she as small as Shion-chan?"

"No, he's even smaller," Haruka chimed in. "He's going to be your brother."

And with no further question, Fuyuha just softly decides to hug Takane. Well, not quite Takane, but her belly. For a moment, no one says anything. Everyone seemed to have nothing but love in their minds, and on Shintaro's part, he kind of wanted to ask if there was cereal.

He sighs though, deciding to be decent enough to let them have their moment, but that didn't stop him from feeling out of place. He yawns, and ew, his breath stinks. He doesn't have a toothbrush here though. Welp. Gonna have to brush his teeth with his finger.

"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?" he suddenly hears Fuyuha ask, and Haruka and Takane immediately comply.

"Yes, of course."

Shintaro absently says good night when they all get up.

(...)

He had fallen asleep in the armchair, and he's woken up by the unmistakable voice of Fuyuha.

"How does my brother eat inside your belly, mommy?"

Shintaro checks his phone. It was seven in the morning. Soon, he hears Takane's tired voice managing an answer, "I, uhhh."

Or sort of. From the distance of the voices, Shintaro figures they're in the kitchen. Apparently, Haruka was with them, because he soon joined in, "The food mommy eats goes to your brother to help him get stronger and bigger!"

"Ohhh," Fuyuha immediately goes. She had sounded excited when she asked the question, which is how Shintaro expected her to react last night when she found out about this. He figured she'd shower them in questions; he guesses she's making up for that now. "And what's he thinking now, mommy?"

"That he can't wait to get out of there. That's what mommy's thinking, at least."

"When will he get out?"

"When he's big enough."

"Then eat more, mommy!"

As he heard Takane's sleepy sigh and Haruka cheerful laugh, Shintaro rubbed his face to properly wake up. For a moment, he's so focused in being disgusted about how greasy his own skin felt that he doesn't notice Fuyuha had walked to him, and he almost has a heartattack again when he sees her.

Before he could say anything about it though, Fuyuha says, "Mommy liked the drawing I made for her!"

"I'm glad," Shintaro yawned. In the end, Fuyuha showed the famous drawing last night. She claimed it was a dragon like the ones from the videogames mommy plays, but to him it looked like a potato with sticks or something, like most of the stuff she drew. Anyhow, he's sure it must've been received a spot in the fridge like all of her other artworks.

Fuyuha shot him a smile, so he does the same. She stops in her tracks though, adding, "Oh, uncle Shishin!"

"Hm?"

"I'm going to be a big sister!"

The words "big sister" sting at Shintaro's heart, since all he can think is of how thrilled Ayano would've been to hear that sentence from their friends' kid.

Instead of upsetting him though, the thought only makes his smile feel bigger. So Shintaro puts up the best surprised face he can manage,

"You don't say!"

**Author's Note:**

> I picture Takane being either five or six months pregnant in this, but I don't think I mentioned it in the fic? So I'm doing it here hahaha
> 
> Also I edited Fuyuha's age. Not here, but in the last one, where I edited it to be three years old instead of four. Otherwise she'd just be a forever year old, hahaha. Thing is, her age difference with her brother will be four years.
> 
> Anyhow, I really hope that if you made it down here, you enjoyed it at least a little.


End file.
